What is the EOSS Balloon Faq

Essentially, this FAQ is intended to become a resource for High Altitude Ballooning. The intention is not to center around how EOSS does things but rather how many different aspects of this avocation are accomplished in many different ways. When multiple differing answers arrive at "FAQ central" I will probably attempt to post all relevant answers.

I welcome you all to read the various FAQs and submit comments, corrections and suggestions.

New questions that need answers are welcome. Go to the Submission Guidelines page to see the requirements to pose a question and a link to do so.

Most of all, I welcome additional answers to common questions. If you have an area of expertise, don't hesitate to write up your answer to the question you are most commonly called upon to explain. See the Submission Guidelines page for information on how to craft your answer and a link to submit it.

Hopefully this section will grow into something like the EOSS handbook with answers on just about every phase of ballooning. Only it will be a little bit more current than that document.

How do I tie my payloads onto the support line?

How do I mount a motorized az/el antenna controller to my tracking and recovery vehicle?

How do I mount a yagi directional antenna to my vehicle?

How do I get my computer to plot both the balloon in flight and myself driving about the highways during a flight?

How do I find the land owner of this property and get permission to enter and recover my payload?

How do I find a place for lunch after the flight? (just kidding)

But there are a many facets to ballooning that could and hopefully will be addressed by the FAQ. And actually, the find a place for lunch ... Well I could start up a humor section of the FAQ for outlandish stuff too.

One thing I would like to do is preserve the entire contents of the FAQ on the EOSS website. So, if you have a webpage that addresses some question you think we should add to the FAQ, I ask that you give me the link and permission to copy the contents of your page into our website. In this way, it will be available as long as our web site is up and running (9 years and counting as of Jan/2004). I'll place the link back to your pages too. I just want the actual answer to be present within the Eoss web structure.

The only limitation: I don't want this to be a general Amateur radio FAQ in any sense of the word. If you have an amateur radio answer, it should be specifically aimed at a solution for a ballooning situation. For example:

Above is a link to the configuration options for a Kantronics KPC3 TNC. This is a piece of amateur radio equipment. But, this answer is addressing how EOSS sets up an airborne KPC3 to run during a flight as a telemetry transmitter and APRS position reporter. So, sure you can address amateur radio stuff, and are welcome to do so as long as it bears directly on the operation or support of a balloon flight.

You may also submit corrections or additions to pre-existing FAQ answers. If they are substantial enough you will be added as the co-author of the answer. Not ... If you find minor errors. It must be a real addition to the existing answer for you to be credited. But, little things like spell checks, frequency corrections, callsign updates or whatever are appreciated and will be incorporated into the answer to ensure the highest level of accuracy for each answer.

Answers will be peer reviewed prior to posting. This means I'll ask someone who has similar expertise to vet your piece if I don't have that expertise myself (likely).

I realize at the time of reading this you may not have time to check this out. But, if you think you may have something to add to our growing compendium of knowledge, flag this message for later action so you will be reminded of it occasionally and thus be prompted at a more appropriate time to delve into the FAQ and see how you might contribute.

Here's hoping that this FAQ may grow into something really valuable to the amateur high altitude ballooning community.